Junior oilers were making ground as small cap indices went higher but were still left in the rear view mirror by FTSE100.
FTSE AIM 100 was up 0.64% at the midday point at 3,275, while FTSE AIM All share gained 0.57% to 701.590.
Bigger blue chip brother FTSE100 gained 1.29% to 6,114 with Aviva (LON:AV.) the biggest gainer, up 5.26% to 490.3p, as it continues to bask in the market's reception of its full year 2015 numbers.
The big faller on Footsie was Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS), which shed 2.8% at 395.3p.
Brent crude futures at the time of writing were up 1.4% at US$40.65 a barrel for May delivery and WTI was also higher. Juniors Edge Resources (LON:EDG), up 28.57% to 0.23p; Petrel (LON:PET), up 22.73% to 3.38p and Prospex Oil (LON:PXOG) ,up 48% to 2p were all higher.
Miners were also among gainers with Tertiary Minerals (LON:TYM) up 20% to 1.62p and SolGold (LON:SOLG) over 18% ahead at 3.38p.
Among the big losers was stamps and collectibles firm Stanley Gibbons (LON:SGI), down 39.6% to 22.5p, as it confirmed that it's very close to concluding the terms of an equity fundraising of around £13 million by the issue of new ordinary shares at a price of 10p.
Also on the up was internet domain name management company Minds + Machines Group Ltd (LON:MMX) after it entered into a co-marketing agreement with the controller of the .club and .bar top level domains to co-promote Minds + Machines group's .beer and .vodka domains to the US nightclub and bar industry via North America's second largest registrar group through Name.com. Shared added 3.9% to 10p a pop.
Drug developer Scancell Holdings PLC (LON:SCLP) advanced 7.8% to 19p as it said it is teaming up with Sweden’s leading research organisation. The collaboration could aid the development of one of Scancell's two breakthrough technologies.
W Resources (LON:WRES) added 4.26% to 0.49p as the tungsten, gold and copper junior raised £750,000 through a share placing backed by its directors.
W Resources is developing the La Parrilla project in Spain, where tungsten production at a "fast-track mine" is scheduled for late 2016 at an estimated cost of US$16mln.